Z through car washes

alcheng

I am curious nobody mention coin wash, you drive into the space, inset coin, spray your car, rub it with their brush or your own sponge, rinse it and dry it. Then drive it.

Simple and easy, this is what I do in Winter.

mantella87

That's all I use. I live in an apartment complex. No hose/enough space to wash my car if I wanted to. I have a garage at least though.

Vaughanabe13

That's what I do, except I don't use their nasty sponges or brushes - that's just begging to get swirls all over your car. Dirt gets trapped in those things.

This is what I do. I've got it down to a science.
1. Bring a big bag full of microfibers and a wash bucket with a dirt catcher in the bottom.
2. Insert $5 and use the high pressure soap wash to take off as many bugs and debris as I can. Get the whole car soaked. Then before the time runs out, I fill up my bucket with the soap water, so that I don't have to keep inserting $$.
3. Wash the whole car by hand with the microfibers and get all of the dirt loosened up. This is the most time consuming step.
4. Put in another $5 and use the high pressure rinse to blast away all the soap and dirt.
5. Use a low pressure spot-free rinse to lightly coat the car before time runs out.
6. Use the remaining half of the microfibers to hand dry the car.
7. Open up the doors and hatch and clean all of the interior panels, which should already be somewhat wet.
8. Use a second bag to discard all of the wet and dirty microfibers for washing later.
9. Dump out the soap water in the bucket, pack up everything and drive away spotless.

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2009 Nissan 370Z Touring, w/sport, 6MT, chicane yellow/black.

starview

I'm in an apartment also and try to bucket wash at the coin operated self wash. I only use their normal water though - I use my own cash wash soap.

I do have a problem though - how do you fill your bucket? The sprayers on the ones near me are so strong that they just blast the water out of the bucket when trying to fill lol.

Vaughanabe13

Yes I've had that problem. Basically I pull on the handle just barely enough to get the stream going, but not a full blast. It's hard but with a little practice you can get a less powerful stream coming out. Then I aim along the side of the bucket so that the water swirls around rather than bouncing straight up, and I alternate from side to side to prevent the swirling water from going over the edge as it fills. Then once there is a few inches of standing water I will put the nozzle under the water surface and go full blast to fill it up the rest of the way.

Also, it's pretty much unavoidable that you will get splashed a little bit in this process so I usually wear gym shorts and a t-shirt, or something I don't mind getting wet/soapy. You could do it sans splashes if you went really slow, but I always get impatient because time is running out on the sprayer.

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2009 Nissan 370Z Touring, w/sport, 6MT, chicane yellow/black.

ElVee

This is pretty much exactly what I'm honing towards. Thank you! The first time I went I did a terrible job, mostly because I took one look at the plastic brush (that no doubt hits the ground with every other user) and said no way. I'm washing my car every weekend (rain or shine, whether I need it or not) until I get a good routine the ends up with me being satisfied. After that, try out some clay and sealant and start being proactive.

Vaughanabe13

My wash routine isn't the only thing I do, I also have a clay bar and random orbital with various polishes and waxes. But I don't do that every week or anything.

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2009 Nissan 370Z Touring, w/sport, 6MT, chicane yellow/black.